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Definition of "engaged" []

  • Employed, occupied, or busy. (adjective)
  • Committed, as to a cause. (adjective)
  • Pledged to marry; betrothed: an engaged couple. (adjective)
  • Involved in conflict or battle. (adjective)
  • Being in gear; meshed. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "engaged" in a sentence
  • "It was all madness; he was in love, thoroughly attached to Lucy, and engaged, —engaged as strongly as an honorable man need be."
  • "Had the ladies not all been driven from the city by the pestilence, I should most assuredly have engaged some one or more of them to solve the question, whether the doctor was engaged in offices of sympathy, or an affair of the heart -- or whether he was actually _engaged_ in any way."
  • "The usual consequences followed -- he could not earn money so fast as she could spend it; the house became a scene of discord; the daughter dressed in the fashion; learned to play on the piano; was taught to think that being engaged in any useful employment was very ungenteel; and that to be _engaged to be married_ was the chief end and aim of woman; the father died a bankrupt; the weak and frivolous mother lingered along in beggary, for a while, and then died of vexation and shame."